The present invention relates to a method for calibrating color of a digital image transmitted from a computer image processing system to another computer image processing system so that color matching problems created by the transmission of digital images can be practically eliminated.
According to the recent developments in computer image processing technology and the communication technology for digital data, it has become possible to transmit digital images from one computer image processing system to another computer image processing system.
Advances in computer image processing technology and advances in digital data communications technology have made it possible to transmit digital images from one location to another in a short time regardless of distance. In particular, the recent advances in Internet communications technology have made rational management of the sending and receipt of digital images possible. These activities are having an effect even on our daily lives. For example, systems are appearing in which specific businesses provide information including digital images to large numbers of nonspecific consumers through an Internet communications system so as to engage in direct commercial transactions without going through intermediaries, or in which large numbers of nonspecific consumers order work of the same content to specific businesses through an Internet communications system as opposed to a conventional system, or ordering photographic processing to specific businesses through local photo processing shops. Further, cases have appeared in which photo processing shops having insufficient facilities or capabilities for computer image processing streamline their operations by business tie-ups through network systems involving known digital data transmission methods with businesses having sophisticated capabilities in that technology.
However, such systems for the transmission and reception of digital images have only just been put together. There are still problems remaining to be solved. One of these problems is the problem of the mismatch of color of an image transmitted between two computer image processing systems (brightness, contrast, chroma, and color balance: hereinafter simply referred to as “color”).
In general, there is a method of reading an image by a scanner so as to store the image as digital data in a computer, or taking a photograph by a digital camera, then connecting the digital camera to a computer and transmitting and storing the digital data of the image in the computer. Whatever the case, a mismatch in color unavoidably occurs between the color of the original image and the color of the digital image displayed on the monitor of the computer. The reason is naturally due to the performance of the reading equipment and computers as explained later
While the extent of the mismatch in image color due to these unavoidable factors differs depending on the equipment comprising the systems, the situation becomes more complicated the greater the number of the possible combinations of two image processing systems. It may be said without exaggeration that this problem has to be solved or else no further advances in digital information transmission systems including the transmission of images can be expected.